Page 135 of Experiments in Offline Dating

“It’s sake. Tell me what to do, Sim. Please.”

“Well.” She was quiet for a while, and I thought maybe she’d fallen asleep. “I think the only thing you can do is wait for him to get in touch with you, when he’s ready, and if he does, if you still feel like you might be in love, and if he feels the same, then you have a very earnest, grown-up conversation about what that looks like and what your options are.”

“Yeah. That sounds really mature and reasonable.”

“I’m glad you agree.”

“Ooooorrrr . . . what if we do, like . . . an experiment? A do-over?”

“An experiment?”

“To test it. To see . . . you know . . . if this really is love. If it’s strong enough to change our lives for.”

“Maya, not everything is a science experiment.”

“Yeah, but it can be!”

“This is so stupid. How would it even work?”

“We’d need more time together. Long enough to test the hypothesis. But not just like normal, wishy-washy dating but, like, full exposure. Thirty days. Thirty days to fall madly in love or walk away forever.”

“No, Maya. I hate that. Don’t do that.”

“I’ll call Jackie in the morning to scheme. Thanks for the help! I already have some ideas.”

“No! That’s so dumb!”

“’Night! You’re the greatest! Happy birthday!”

“Ugggghhh!”

Chapter 45 An Experiment with Old Dogs and New Tricks

“Jackie. It’s Maya, can you hear me?”

“Is that you, Maya? You sound far away, my dear.”

“Aw, Jackie. I am far away.”

“How’ve you been keeping? Did you get my email of the photo? I couldn’t figure out where to put the paper-clip thingy.”

“Yeah. I absolutely got your photo. I can’t believe . . . It was . . .” I got a little choked up. Tadhg’s smile flashed through my mind, the smile that I’d looked at a million times since it arrived. The thought gave me that hollow ache again, a thumb on a bruise. And something about the sound of Jackie’s voice over the phone, that warm familiar voice, made me feel happy and sad at the same time. Who even was I anymore?

“Are you there?”

“I’m . . . I’m here, Jackie.” I sniffed.

“It sounds like you might need a cup of tea, love.”

“I wish I could just drop by for a cup.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what all this is about.”

“I . . .” I took a breath and let it out slowly to steady my voice. “I think I might have a broken heart.”

“Oh no, Maya. I’m so sorry, love. That’s just awful to hear.”

Thing was, maybe I’m not the best of judges, but Jackie didn’t really sound very sorry.